Exploring the History, Literature, and Culture of the Tar Heel State

Archive for September 28th, 2009

The origin of “bunkum” — N.C. Congressman Felix Walker’s explanation of his longwinded, irrelevant speech on the Missouri Compromise as “talking for Buncombe” — approaches common knowledge, but the late columnist William Safire traced some notable details in “Safire’s Political Dictionary”: “By 1828…talking to (or for) Buncombe was well known. The Wilmington (N.C.) Commercial referred in 1849 to […]

The next “Staff Picks” at the NC Collection will feature our favorite fall festivals in North Carolina. My pick is illustrated below with a program from the 1983 Lincoln County Apple Festival. As a kid, I loved attending this event. What eight-year-old boy wouldn’t like an apple box derby (though I never got to race […]